Archive for the ‘Personal note’ Category

It was a busy, August day, I had just gotten back from a fast trip over to Western New York State wine/grape country from some juice when my phone rang. I was tired I had left about 4:00am, by 3:00 in the afternoon the day was getting long especially in the heat. My wife Michelle had gone to the Doctor to get some test results, her voice on the phone was weak and tearful, “I’ve got cancer”. I dropped to my knees on the back dock of our winery. I had not gone with her, the general consensus was they were just calcium deposits….we were wrong. The 20 minute drive she had back from town seemed liked an eternity.

My Girls, my wife Michelle with our daughters Cara and Breanne

Were my daughters going to lose their Mother? I didn’t know how to react really. I mean I didn’t know enough about anything to be afraid or confident, angry or stoic. My brother had lost his wife the prior year after a long battle. Was this our future? My wife’s Mother was winning her battle, was this our future? My wife’s Grandmother on her Father’s side died from it in the 1940’s. I didn’t even know what I didn’t know.

Almost five years later, she survived!

This post is not “About Us”, we survived. It is about what we…..mostly “she” did to fight back. The December after that August my wife Michelle had a double mastectomy. We were lucky no Kemo, no Radiation. The following spring then June final reconstructive surgery. In July she walked 60 miles in Cleveland in three days raising over $4,000.00. She has done that every year since in one city or another. I have helped by supporting her, being a Susan G. Komen crew member and last year for my first time I walked along side my survivor in the 100 degree heat of the Twin Cities as a walker myself. That is what the PINK Party is about and so much more.

Pink Party 2013

One thing I learned about the Susan G. Komen walk was it was about so much more than just money. When you spend three days together with about a thousand of your closest friends on street corners, sidewalks, parking lots, parks, tents, portable showers, tents and porta jons volumes can be spoken with just eye contact. Yea, you raised a pretty good chunk of change to get there but it isn’t really about the money, it is about the journey. And the PINK Party is part of that journey for us.

Auction items

For me the raising money sorta sucks, but it taught me a lesson. It is good to be humble and ask for help if it causes someone to think about something they would rather not think about and maybe it saves their life. My wife was lucky, early detection at least saved her from a much more gruesome path we saw others take, maybe it saved her life? So while the party is about raising money, the cliche’ of raising awareness is even more important because in this case that awareness is personal. If we touch one person that night, if one person is moved to action we truly have already taken our first steps, the following sixty miles are easy.

Pink Party ladies

It’s harder to hate someone if you know them, it is harder to be afraid of something if you are smiling. We are serious about this fight but it doesn’t mean we don’t laugh along the way, we use it as a weapon in our arsenal. The PINK Party is about serious business, it is about doing our part to save lives but we also try and have a good laugh along the way. Laughter rejuvenates, laughter makes you stronger, laughter helps you fight.

Willie on the "hands down"

We play games like “Hands up” / “Hands Down”. You pay to play but if you are the last one standing you go home with a Big Screen T.V.

Prizes and so much more!

The Big Screen T.V. was purchased and donated by Maize Valley staff member and good friend Scott Mann. Scott and Michelle hatched the idea for the “PINK Party” event over the previous winter. Many great people came together to make the evening greater than the sum of its parts.

Scott Mann, a Man of many talents

A great number of local area businesses also stepped up to help out. Doreen Leaf Designs and Bridal Bouquet donated Tuxes for the guys to wear that evening and countless others donated door prizes, massages, and makeovers. We even had a belly dancer out demonstrate her trade and how it applied to art and fitness.

Joe, Ryan and Todd sporting Doreen Leaf Designs apparel

In the end they even managed to make this farmer look pretty good and that is a hard thing to do standing next to this lady, my survivor Michelle.

Me and my Survivor

As I mentioned it took me a while to really understand the impact a night like this could have on people. Our actions that evening while focused on the obvious purpose of raising money also moved people to be multipliers and that was our real accomplishment. We raised over $7,000.00 that night all told. We thank all the participants, guests and friends who came out to make that possible. We took that money and some more and donated it to the Susan G. Komen foundation and participated in the 3 Day for the cure walk in the Twin Cities. We also mention we paid our travel expenses, hotel and meals while on the trip out of our own pocket, not as a badge of honor but just so folks know we tried to put all their donations toward the “main thing”.

At the end of Day # 2 with 40 miles behind us

Along the walk we met many friends, and heard many stories of personal loss and triumph. With your help we may again do it again in 2014, thank you for your time spent here reading this and hope to see you at the “PINK Party“!

Chelle in the middle of the pic at closing ceremonies

Thanks again, next post I will talk a little bit more about the walk itself, what happens and why we have chosen this particular charity. Take care, BB

Ohio Wine and More is about a family farm, market and winery who we are and what we do. We are a family first, we are a collection of generations working together that make up more than the sum of our parts. We lost one of those parts in 2013. Loretta Stawarski Bakan, Mother of the author of this blog, passed away on December 16th. My Mom turned 90 years old in August, she had a great life!

Loretta Bakan my Mom

My Mom had a dry sense of humor and irony that is seldom seen today. She never wore her problems or discomforts on her sleeve, she always wore a smile. The last years of my Mom’s life were not that great. She started losing her sight about 15 years ago and it took its toll on her. My Dad was there by her side the whole time. He is a Marine of WWII vintage, and these years is where I really began to understand how tough a Marine could be.

I don’t write this post to make anyone feel sad about my Mom’s passing, it was time for her to go. She had used up her body and life here on this earth was no longer much fun for her. Yet the way she lived her last few years taught me more about life and living than the previous four plus decades I had the pleasure of her company. Mom along with Dad showed me what true courage was in the face of a body and mind that could no longer keep pace with the world around it. I hope I can live to be as good as an example for my children when my “time comes”.

So if you visit Maize Valley and you see something cool and creative, thank Loretta. She was the spark of creativity that I carry forward that creates the corn mazes, pumpkin cannons, pig races and so much more. Mom’s dry sense of humor and cutting wit, is the source of my ability to creatively look at things in such a way that I see opportunities where others may just see problems. Mom was very practical growing up in the Great Depression and having lived though a World War but she was ornery too.

It can be difficult for a child to understand but your parents were people too. Young people at one time, when they leave us they become ageless both the person you knew as well as the person they had to be over their years.

Mom is now that “person” spanning the ages, not bound by time. She is again that young attractive woman who caught the eye of that Marine, she is also the woman who taught this young boy how to ride a bicycle 23 years later, she is also a loving Grandma and Great Grandma to many young lives. If I have any tact, grace or elegance about me it is that of my mother showing through. I will endeavor to be a living example of those qualities so abundant in her person as I live the rest of my days on this earth. And I hope by doing so I make the world a better place for those who I am around.

I ran across this on face book, I grew up with parents that lived threw the great depression and a world war. As I read this I can recall many things my Mom and Dad did when I was growing up. Thanks Folks! 🙂

Dad on bike in USMC uniform and Mom in Blue between us.

In line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained,

“We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.” He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint. But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?… Sometimes I think we were better off before the “Green Thing Happened”…

This post written by Bill Bakan, part of living is giving back to your community where you can. Sometimes with money, sometimes with your time, sometimes with both. We are a small family farm market and winery. This blog is about Ohio Wine but also more, it’s also about “how we roll”.

My 1st Patriot Guard Mission

I am not a “joiner” I am a entrepreneur, sort of a loaner and when it comes to riding my motorcycles it has always been more about “escape” from people and the world. Just me, my ride and the road. But you see my Dad is WWII USMC soon to be 91 years on this planet and I am proud of that and wanted to find a way to show appreciation to those that stand for us. My Dad never encouraged us to go into the military he had done that and did not care to see us do it.

1st Patriot Guard Mission line up

Today at the request of the family the Patriot Guard had a mission to honor a Marine that had returned home to his final resting place in Rittman Ohio. I had really no idea what I was in for. I joined the guard because I thought the protests that some groups were doing at military funerals to be disgusting. Today one came close to home and I was able to go. The guard’s duty is to provide a shield between these protests and the family if necessary. We are just to stand there with the stars and stripes just as the fallen service member had stood for us. No one came to protest, we just had to be there to honor this Marine’s service in peace, as it should be.

1st Patriot Guard Mission

So I watched and learned and tried to not mess up, I was just one small volunteer trying to find a way to pay some sort of small honor to a Marine that had made the ultimate sacrifice and to give some comfort to his family. We waited, then stood guard, then we rode quite a long way from Brecksville Ohio to Rittman, without stopping. Along the way others stopped to let us pass at the bequest of a road guard of police officers. Many, many people stopped as we passed.

People stopped along on ramps, sidewalks, fire trucks on the overpasses and more.

We arrived at the National Cemetary in Rittman, we dismounted gathered the flags from our bikes and stood in a line along the path.

It was a beautiful sunny day, not too hot with white puffy clouds against a bright blue sky and a slight breeze. It was a wonderful day to ride, but a real lousy reason.

Marines with white tops, black coats, blue pants with red strips and white belts were there too. Two Marines along the path in front of us, seven to carry the casket, seven to fire three shots each, one to call the orders, one to play taps. Hundreds of other law enforcement officers, the family, the Leatherneck nation, Rolling Thunder and more all under the sun of a stunning sky. What a beautiful day to be alive.

We stood in a line, we were not “playing” some game this was real, we were wanted there, we were asked. We were very close to the core of the purpose of the day, I was amazed. I wondered if this was how a citizen felt back in the time George Washington. I was just a man with no special reason to be there other than I felt I should do what I could to fill a hole in this line, I did so by “joining” this group.

Rittman

I wore my vented nylon riding jacket, I did not really “fit in” amongst all the leather vests and other more traditional “Harley Davidson” style attire, I don’t ride a H-D, but I was welcome. I also wore dark sunglasses, and about half way through the ceremony I also wore tears.

And I’ll wear them again till they come home, and I can say “Welcome Home”.

Lunch time for everyone! Hey everyone it’s Cara, I could have just made something out of the freezer but why do that when we have fresh produce from grandpa right out the back door!
So how did I do it? Well, the sweet corn was cooked in the oven! Yup, throw it in there husk and all! At about 350, let it cook for 35 to 40 minutes. It is the BEST and ONLY way to cook your sweet corn. However, be careful when it comes out, it’s going to be much hotter than you think, but the little silks come right off!
The potatoes were very easy as well, just cut them up! And then I threw in some shallots, green peppers, and yellow summer squash, then I added some olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper! Just let them cook untill they’re nice and brown.
It’s such a simple meal! And it’s made with all the fresh produce that Grandpa grows! Try it and enjoy!

Although my mom and dad work a lot, and we somthimes don’t get to spend as much time as a family that we’d like. We took a really big vacation this spring, and we got to go on the brand new disney dream! As a kid I have been to disney 4 times, many of which when I was little.

Top deck at night

I wasn’t sure how the cruise ship was going to be, or if I was going to like the vacation. But I did discover, that the magic of Disney is still there for me! It really made our vacation truly, magical. And yes, even at almost 18 years old, I STILL have fun with my mom and dad. I know that everything that they do is for us!

Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery will be sending a team to the Susan G. Komen 3 Day walk for the cure in Cleveland Ohio in 2011. This is part 3 of the story of how this family farm business came to “adopt” this as “official cause”. Both from a personal standpoint but also from an event and business perspetive how we try and raise awereness and funds. That’s why it is part of the Ohio wine and more blog, this part of the “more”.

Now that is a real bad cliche’! We often say when we lose someone to breast cancer something like, she “lost her battle” with breast cancer. What the f**k does that mean? A battle is a subset of a war are those men and women who get breast cancer warriors? Well you’re not till it punches you in the gut as it did us.

At least for us, even when it came very close to us we had sympathy for those affected but sort of covered our ears and went “Laaa, Laaa, Laaa, Laaa” when the discussion really tried to get “focused”. You don’t really take up arms and Lock n Load till it takes a shot at you, then baby, “it’s on”.

Who's da bad ass?

Gonna “Rewind” now a bit from dropping Chelle off day of the walk to one of “My Darkest Days”, and I ain’t talkin’ about the band from Canada either! You see in order for you to understand why I began to understand why the SGK walk was important enough to tell others, I need to tell you how breast cancer has reached into our lives beyond my wife Chelle.

When I heard “those words” on the dock I was dropped to my knees, a blackness shadowed over me, I felt powerless to help “my girl”. Maybe I overreacted? I am a data guy I needed data what did this mean? All of a sudden I was in a fog, my reference points unknowable, my objectives and options unclear.

Mary Ellen Cole Bakan

Overreacted? I did not know, THAT was the problem! The fog, the blackness of my heart and soul was maybe a result of the “war” I was sucked into. My sight was obstructed. I feared this battle, you see this was not the first time I saw a one. Pictured above is not just a tractor and a wagon but my Brother Tim returning from the pumpkin patch with a load of guests, pumpkins and memories.

Sitting on the wagon was his wife Mary Ellen Cole Bakan with their daughter Anne. A daughter they were not even supposed to even be able to have, today the biggest living memory we have of Mary Ellen.

Orange, my favorite color!

Mary Ellen was our un-official “pumpkin lady”, nobody out of ignorance nor mallace ever left our pumpkin patch without paying for the time, labor and toil it took to raise the crop. With a smile and comforting tone as big and beautiful as the blazing color of the fall folliage around you, that only a 4th grade teacher could deliver, she could walk up to anybody and be sure she did her part to help keep this farm “sustainable”.

The change of season brings certain well “certainties” if you will. Just as those colorful fall leaves decay to give us aromas we only ascribe to fall, or that the models on the L.L. Bean cataloge are having a great time! I was certain EVERYONE leaving the pumpkin patch had PAID for their pumpkin!

Tim and Mary Ellen “worked” for FREE for us on the weekends, I’d pay a King’s ransom if I could to bring her back for my brother. They had our back, I’ve done the best I could the almost past three years to have Tim’s. I feared that someone would have to have mine. That’s how this party got started for us. More to come.

Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery will be fielding a team for the 2011 Susan G. Komen 3 Day walk. If you would like to join us please get in touch. Because everyone deserves a lifetime!

Ya know when Michelle wanted to do the 3 day walk I “hesitated” to help when she asked. I must confess, my bad. Not so much doing the “Walk” but rather telling everyone and asking for their support.

You see I’m a guy I just do stuff myself. I told Chelle, “It will be hard for us but, let’s just write a check, and you walk”. That is NOT the point she said! This is about awareness, of the big picture. My “training” for the SGK walk had begun before I helped her take her first steps.

As with most “arguments” we have had over 25 years she just waits till I see she’s right and I apologize. That is where I started to grasp what this is really all about. And if you know me, once I get ahold of an idea, I tend to “ride it hard“, I hate missed opportunities and under used resources. Forgive me for “chronologically jumping around a bit” here getting this story started.

Whooo Haaaa, we are just getting warmed up!

Fast forward to the day of the walk. when I dropped Chelle off it hit me. After months and hunderds of miles of training and fundraising, I had to let go now. Now was her time to step into something really big! And coming from a dairy farm backround that was usually not a good thing!!! But in this case she was about to enter an experience bigger than either of us had ever seen.

Now listen, we are Buckeye Alumni, that is where we met and we have seen “big games” but these 900 souls plus 300 crew members dwarfed anything we had ever been a part of at “The Shoe”. This was about life and death, I’ll put my money on a cancer survivor anyday after seeing this .

Cheer a lot

I am not a writer, I am a farmer, but my self imposed title is the “Fun TSAR”, I wear many hats. Part of my struggle to help with this at the start was I had to overcome my feelings that we were special. Not so much because we had a “situation” (no Jersey Shore pun intended) but rather EVERYBODY has a “cause”!

We have a son that has “many” “Autistic” behaviors, Hati had an earthquake, St. Jude’s needs help, I lost a cousin on 9/11 there are tons of places and people asking for your help. Why should anybody care about us and our cause more than anybody elses, I hated the idea that our cause is “better” than anybody elses.

I wonder where we go? Let's follow the guys in pink...

But this one punched me in the gut and I was PISss’T OFF. Where do we go from here? That started months earlier. When I began to see how we fit into the big picture. I will try not to use too many cliches’ and analogies to describe things.

I’ll try not to minimize what other’s have suffered through by my shortcomings in telling our story, I’ll try and show how we fit into the big picture and how everyone deserves a lifetime!

I’m walking because I can. Because so many can not. Because this disease has taken so much from so many. I’m walking for my sister in law who fought to the end, for my dad who grew up without a mother , for my aunt who started her fight 30 years ago, for my mom who started her fight 2 years ago.

I’m walking for myself – to prove that the past year has been just a speed bump in the road of life. Many of you know that I was diagnosed with breast cancer August 31, 2009. Since that time I have had two surgeries, the second being a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. That means they took the old ones with the cancer and gave me new ones (although it’s been a little more involved than that).

I’m walking for my children, that they may never have to walk. That they will never have to hear the words “we got the results, it’s cancer”. That some day there will be a cure and a world without breast cancer.

I’m walking because someone, walked for me. For without the advances in early detection and treatments, my cancer might still be hidden, my story might have a very different ending.

The Susan G., Komen foundation has been involved with every major advancement in the fight against breast cancer.

It was suggested to me that from time to time I put in a personal note in the blog about who I am as the author of this blog called Ohio Wine and More from Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery. A way to get to know the person behind the story we tell of our family farm, market and winery.

We do a great deal of event based marketing, edgy stuff, we have wines with names like Red Neck Red, Hanky Panky and Big Red Pecker. We “push It” when it comes to marketing, I “Push It” in life. Over the past few years I have lost some loved ones and began to realize there is no guarentee when it comes to tomorrow.

When I became a young parent I sold my bikes, as I became a slightly older one I got one back. I love to ride. Backroad gravel, twisty turns, hard fast straights I love it all. I believe the best bike is the one that “moves” YOU the most no matter what the make.

I try and take this passion and extend it into the marketing we do at Maize Valley those of you who are our friends and guests I hope you appreciate that, I have fun doing it as I must be unemployeed as I love going to “Work”.